Atamate is a simple and affordable data-driven building control platform. It focuses on precise automated control and continuous monitoring of the internal environment to reduce energy consumption, simplify building management and optimise maintenance – while increasing occupant comfort and security.

Recent support under Energy Systems Catapult’s Innovator Support 4 Platform worked towards achieving recognition within Government’s Standard Assessment Procedure for energy performance in homes. This next phase of work focuses on:

• Measuring consumer interest in smart homes, particularly those buying new homes,
• Identifying optimum price points within core market opportunities
• Defining propositions for market.

The challenge 

Recent inclusion of wireless capabilities into the sensors significantly increased the potential for Atamate to scale and grow revenue within the direct to the consumer smart home marketplace. The key challenge for Atamate to overcome was how best to go to market within this audience, and focusing in on which demographics within the consumer marketplace would be most viable.

Atamate sought insights into consumer knowledge and attitudes to smart home technologies generally. They also sought to understand consumer shopping behaviours and attitudes to price in direct relation to their product offering. The business additionally sought feedback and viewpoints on various customer propositions to test their market viability.

The innovation

The Atamate solution is a simple, affordable, retrofittable platform built on wireless mesh that provides data driven controls for all buildings. It uses sensors, actuators and control software to transform the performance of buildings. The common platform relies on four core disciplines and four core technologies to reduce complexity, lower energy costs and provide greater building intelligence.

Individual households as well buildings managers can achieve energy savings and reduce energy bills by linking heating, lighting and cooling to occupancy detection. Furthermore, Atamate can monitor air quality, temperature and humidity to maintain healthy environments at home or in-office.

The solution

Expanding on the Storytelling for Startups masterclass which defined clear and compelling value proposition messaging and the Business Model Innovation sessions which defined revenue models for residential properties and homeowners, the Consumer Insights team set out on an additional piece of research to support and inform Amatate’s market expansion.

The research surveyed over 600 users from the Energy Systems Catapult Home Truths Panel from various backgrounds, ages and occupations, drilling down on four key areas:

• Knowledge levels about smart home technologies, existing technologies installed and perceived benefits and concerns in relation to these technologies.
• Testing attitudes and viewpoints to each Atamate subscription concept (Basic, Standard, Saver, Premium to validate market viability.
• Defining the audiences ‘willingness to pay’ for the solution to help identify optimum price point, margin and revenue opportunity.
• Identifying the total addressable market and defining primary and shadow markets

The impact

The Consumer Insights fieldwork proved a valuable piece of research for Atamate, establishing:

• High levels of purchase interest, consumer relevance and product / service understanding across all Atamate subscription models.
• The main drivers of interest are the ability to reduce energy bills and reduce energy consumption.
• All subscription options are appealing to consumers, but appeal increases when a price is indicated.
• Once pricing was indicated, interest was weighted to the Standard value proposition.
• An acceptable range for subscription costs, enabling Atamate to further define pricing models and define optimum price point and margin effectiveness.
• Smart Home Segment demographics to allow Atamate to understand the characteristics of each audience and target lookalike audiences.

Next steps

• Atamate will explore new funding opportunities to finalise their go to market planning for both the consumer market and via the SAP process.
• The business will also continue to work with the BRE to support on the SAP approval process for inclusion in the next update.
• They will also seek inclusion in Appendix Q in the interim period.